Gladius Grapefruit
In construction |divwidth = 45% |floatalign = left |floatclear = }} Gladius Grapefruit, born as Gladius Glamour Goldberg and also known as the Golden Gladiator, is the main villain in LOTM: Witnesses of Sleepy Hollow - Harvest Saga: Helene Hawthorn Arc, particularly its second part (since the first part have Helene as its arguable main antagonist but not a villain), and served as one of the major villains in the entire Harvest Saga. Gladius is an apprentice of Phyllis Peach who stayed in a parallel earth known as Planet Sorenson. After the rise of the United Kingdom of America, Gladius took over Sleepy Hollow, became the Light Lord and served as the parallel version of Lord Helio, the leader of the Order of Flourish. He is also a willing vessel of Nether Mecurio the Demon Prince, one of the Twelve Nethers of Zodiac Demons. Despite acting as the Arc Villain of Helene Arc, Gladius serves as merely a tool of the mainstream Phyllis to the Stone of Wisdom's power on Planet Sorenson counterpart of Sleepy Hollow. However, the actions of Gladius was important to the plot since it made Phyllis went into her next plan to gain the Stone. She then manipulated the Witnesses and started a war between them and the Order with the information coming from Gladius. Overall, Gladius is the catalyst towards the more conflicted second half of the entire Saga. Not only being responsible for the creation of Dark Arzonia, Gladius is also responsible for the destruction of a rebellion power against Moloch's Dark Empire. Above all, the action of Gladius of copying the Feast of Apollo successfully made Phyllis to estimate the destructive scale coming from Lord Helio's planning second Feast of Apollo. After knowing its effect from Gladius' experiment on a survived Helene, Phyllis manipulated the Witnesses into overthrowing Helio's evil plan and stand against Selina Strawberry who believed the second Feast of Apollo was for greater good, turning the entire plot into another level. It also prompted the desire deep inside Michael Langdon in fusing a Nether Crystal inside his body, and Michael later succeeded after merging with Nether Sorensen the Demon Prince. ''Lore - All About Self Data Personality False Heroic Pretense Despite being merely a pawn of Phyllis, Gladius is not less manipulative or less cunning than his seemly mistress. If he has more actions and goes free in the end, he'll be Phyllis' spiritual successor. While taking the mission of recreating the first Feast of Apollo, Gladius made it up to eleven by causing rebel soldiers affected by it to turn into Zodiac Demons directly, instead of turning them into Shines or Mages. This is a proof of the own flexibility of Gladius and his non-conventional thinking. Phyllis was inspired by the actions of Gladius and later suggested Lord Helio to make the second Feast into a global scale and turn many people around the world into Zodiac Demons. Although, it was a strategy of pretense suggested by Gladius. Its true purpose is not to support the second Feast, but making Lord Helio a villain in many people's eyes (including Selina Strawberry who trusted Helio most), while Phyllis would get out of this because her so-called "advanced" information to make the Witnesses stop the second Feast. In truth, this was a sadistuic strategy provided by Gladius himself. It makes Gladius one the (if not, ''the) secondary antagonists in the overall Harvest Saga. Gladius is also extremely cruel. He manipulated the mayor to create a machine and drain magic from every magical rebels and magical citizens in Sleepy Hollow, while plotting an incrimination against Ichabod, Abbie and Helene for the horror and mayhem caused by its effect. In fact, Gladius wanted to use the machine to turn everyone in the rebels into Zodiac Demons, trying to test the Stone of Wisdom in process. He demonstrates cruelty upon his so-called mayor and cares nothing but his own plan coming into fruition. Gladius is also a lying and deceitful liar with the enhance of his Nether Crystal, being able to deceive the mayor and his minions to be a nice and helpful man. He also fooled the citizens to believe the rebels are evil by manipulating Dark Arzonia (parallel Phyllis) to slaughter citizens and kill the rebels, before he used the mayor to fool everyone under the Empire to blame the Witnesses on this chaos and mayhem.] Overall, Gladius is an amalgram of the mainstream Lord Helio and the mainstream Phyllis Peach. His actions mirrors both of their villainy, though his intentions are much less noble than Helio, while his ambitions are much less hidden than Phyllis. ''Vainglory and Solipsism Amongst all of the villains from the overall Order of Flourish, Gladius represents the sin of Vanity, also known as '''Vainglory'. Once being a sin of Christianity amonst the deadly sins but later arguably merged with Pride, Vanity is the excessive belief in one's own abilities or attractiveness to others. Prior to the 14th century it did not have such narcissistic undertones, and merely meant futility. The related term vainglory is now often seen as an archaic synonym for vanity, but originally meant boasting in vain, i.e. unjustified boasting; although glory is now seen as having an exclusively positive meaning, the Latin term gloria (from which it derives) roughly means boasting, and was often used as a negative criticism. Philosophically speaking, vanity may refer to a broader sense of egoism and pride. Friedrich Nietzsche wrote that "vanity is the fear of appearing original: it is thus a lack of pride, but not necessarily a lack of originality." One of Mason Cooley's aphorisms is "Vanity well fed is benevolent. Vanity hungry is spiteful." Gladius' vanity is similar to Lord Helio's pride, just like many other similarities shared with Helio in personaliy. In spite of this, Gladius' vanity is much more severe to Helio that it even up to the grade of solipsism, while Helio is prone to idealism rather than solipsism. Solipsism (/ˈsɒlɪpsɪzəm/; from Latin solus, meaning 'alone', and ipse, meaning 'self') is the philosophical idea that only one's own mind is sure to exist. As an epistemological position, solipsism holds that knowledge of anything outside one's own mind is unsure; the external world and other minds cannot be known and might not exist outside the mind. As a metaphysical position, solipsism goes further to the conclusion that the world and other minds do not exist. Gladius' belief is full of messiah complex, God complex and metaphysical solipsism, nothing more. He believes that he is the only realistic thing in the world, even the center of the universe, while the towns people and people around him are all his fantasies. He can erase them whenever he want to, believing that his own superiorty made other "worms, fools, cowards and sheep" he ruled to be absolutely obedient. He even called himself a teacher rather than a villain, trying to convince people that villains never acually exists in the town of Magic Hollow, as they were living in a prosper life inside their little "utopia" without being interfered by those false fantasies around. He even spreaded his solipsism to the town and convinced them to join him since they're all fatansized and fictional to him, the only "true being". However, upon meeting the Witnesses, who never do things according to his own concept and plans, Gladius started to get frightened as he believed that the Witnesses are realistic as well. He cannot let his status as the only "realistic being" being compromised. From the beginning, he took Ichabod Crane and Abbie Mills very seriously. He thought the Witnesses can even influence other Order of Flourish members to assist them. Showing fear to the Witnesses, who he believed to have same ability with him (like "controlling fantasies", as he believed in his own delusions) chose to lure the entire Team Witness into his realm before attacking them without another choice. It seemed that Gladius Grapefruit is a Card-Carrying Villain who only cares about himself, but not quite. He believes his own existence, every piece of them, exists for the stablization of the universe as he believed all of the things in existence can survive due to his mind still clear. He also believed that the entire universe exists only because he is still alive, and thus his existence is the root of Magic Hallow and even the whole existence to remain stablized, making him another Knight Templar of the Order that is Lawful Evil. No wonder why Maria Arzonia insulted him via calling him a "frog beneath the well", for being someone so egocentric that they don't care about what was going on around the world, believing it was just his fantasy or illusions while hiding inside his small place. ''Gladius' Mental Illness Psychopathy Metaphysical Solipsism Metaphysical solipsism is the variety of idealism which asserts that nothing exists externally to this one mind, and since this mind is the whole of reality then the "external world" was never anything more than an idea. It can also be expressed by the assertion "there is nothing external to these present experiences", in other words, no reality exists beyond whatever is presently being sensed. The aforementioned definition of solipsism entails the non-existence of anything presently unperceived including the external world, causation, other minds (including God's mind or a subconscious mind), the past or future, and a subject of experience. Despite their ontological non-existence, these entities may nonetheless be said to "exist" as useful descriptions of the various experiences and thoughts that constitute 'this' mind. The solipsistic self is described by Wittgenstein in the Tractatus: "The self of solipsism shrinks to a point without extension and there remains the reality coordinated with it" (TLP 5.64). Sociopathy Complete Monster Proposal ''Being the main antagonist of ''Helene Hawthorn Arc, this man known as Gladius Grapefruit is the Planet Sorenson version of Lord Helio and became the Light Lord on Sorensen Planet after the United Kingdom of America arise. Formerly a citizen on Prime Earth's Sleepy Hollow, Gladius was one of the many formerly normal people who were turned into Shines by the Feast of Apollo, but Gladius chose to use his new potential power to embrace the dark side of magic and turned himself an agent of Moloch, serving him for years. Unlike the original Lord Helio, Gladius lacks of empathy and love, having such an insanity that even appealed the mainstream Phyllis Peach and prompting her to make him her apprentice. Gladius is not only insane but also sadistic to the core. Under the teleportation of Phyllis, Gladius becomes a spy who went staying for years on a Parallel Earth later known as Planet Sorensen, where all the parallel counterparts of different Prime Earth events happened in one era (late 18th century). Unlike Prime Earth, this parallel earth later known as Planet Sorensen have its important people in one era of war, like George Washington and Eckidina KnightWalker together on the parallel Earth. Being the parallel version of Helio, Gladius is one who lead the parallel Order of Flourish while acting on behalf of the United Kingdom of America after Moloch's arrival on this planet. Under the malevolent order of Moloch, Gladius killed many people around George Washington and made Moloch to take over the body of the dead Washington as a vessel, thus starting the reign of King Washington. Under the mainstream Phyllis' order, Gladius allowed the parallel Maria Arzonia (who lived in the Revolutionary War Era instead of a futuristic world on Planet Sorenson) being consumed by the parallel counterpart of Phyllis, forming the aforementioned Dark Arzonia before letting her to kill her colleagues and sending her to Prime Earth, thus starting the events that fasten the pace of Harvest Saga. With Moloch's help, Gladius take over Sleepy Hollow and ruled it as its dictator, demanding the town's respect towards Moloch/King Washington. Not only he fused himself with the crystal of Nether Mecurio the Demon Prince (one of the Twelve Nethers, representing lies) in order to gain absolute control and false facade on his citizen, but also he orchestrated the Feast of Apollo on purpose in order to turn everyone into Shines, before making them fell despaired and creating an army of Zodiac Demons in process. Gladius takes control on FBI Agent Daniel Reynolds, a false magician who cannot use magic, and made him the mayor of Sleepy Hollow, but in fact he was controlling Reynolds and urged him to use a machine to gain power. However, it was just a lie. When the machine was activated using the Stone of Wisdom inside Helene Hawthorn, the whole town would be affected by the Feast of Apollo, turning everyone into Zodiac Demons. Gladius even tried to kill Reynolds after the puppet had been useless to him, committing an act that even made his partner Crow Faux disgusted. Despite only appeared in one arc and had no direct relations to Prime Earth's Order of Flourish, Gladius is responsible for many evil events happened in Prime Earth's Sleepy Hollow especially those connected to Dark Arzonia.'' ''History Abilities Gallery Quotes *"Give up, Helene. The Stone of Wisdom is demanded to be set free from your body. Your mother is never inside it. That is just some sort of absurd superstition. Now, with this stone, I can achieve a plan to crush those resistance against Lord Moloch! Our Empire never falls!"'' *''"The hatred of a single human has caught up the world in despair. It's grand, fateful, and truly beautiful. When you woke up and opened your eye, you will see the world filled with Zodiac Demons like walkding dead on the ground, taking over the mind of Shines and consumed his soul. King Moloch would be pleased, and we will crush the resistance against our mighty United Kingdom of America once and for all. Nothing shall knock down our star spangled crown! The world would be strong again with the arrival of the new Light Lord, and Dark Arzonia shall cleanse the scums on your planet! Now, Mr. Crane, you must have a good trip in Planet Sorensen, but never expect to get out of our kingdom ever again." ''Trivia *In an early version, the creator of Dark Arzonia is the mysterious '''Elder of Plainess', one of the Eight Elders from the Dark Heaven whom Moloch was deeply keeping in touch with them. However, this was later scrapped and Gladius (under the order of the original Phyllis) was created to introduce Planet Sorensen and serves as the Chekov's Gun to the second Feast of Apollo. It was an attempt to make the story less complicated. **Because of this, the introduction of the Dark Heaven would not begin until LOTM: Witnesses of Sleepy Hollow - Rose & Lolth Saga. *While the White Wizard's motif is an European magician, the Golden Gladiator is based on Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh with gold, white and dark blue color motif. *The Golden Gladiator is one of the very few light sorcerers to actively kill civilians on-screen for his own agenda alongside his true superior, Phyllis Peach. *Gladiator/Mercurio is the first Order of Flourish agent confirmed to also be a vessel of one of the Twelve Zodiac Nethers. In contrast, Lord Helio, particularly in his Wiseman persona, while possessing the Zodiac Demon-like form, lacks the Zodiac's crest and is a man-made Zodiac Demon. *Gladius' role was an amalgram to both Lord Helio and Selina Strawberry. He is not only the leader of the parallel Sleepy Hollow but also the parallel Order of Flourish, also controlling the seemly mayor who had no magician ability at all. *In many ways, Gladiator/Mecurio/Gladius is an opposite (albeit still villainous) counterpart to the White Wizard/Wiseman/Lord Helio. **Gladiator is a vessel of a Zodiac Nether, where as Helio/Carmichael created and implanted an artificial high-class Zodiac Demon within himself to gain immortality. **Gladiator's costume is predominantly golden, whereas Wiseman's costume is predominately white. **Both of them caused a mass despair, with Gladius' goal being merely creating more Zodiac Demons while the Wiseman wanted to revive his daughter. **Also notable, is that the use of the Feast to do said tasks had different ranges, the range of Gladius' was limited to Sleepy Hollow, while Helio's second Feast was global. **Both use Mages of Flourish as subordinates. *In the old script, Gladius was the only one of the Traitors of the Order in LOTM: WoSH storyline who does not die in an ironic or karmic manner. However, the new script made his death more ironic only by his death. **'Gladius Grapefruit:' He was killed by "other people" is enough ironic for him. He was killed combined force of Ichabod (using the Infinity Ring), Calvin Cranberry (using the Fusion Dragon Power) and Helene in a fight while trying to proclaim themselves as unrealistic. In his last moment, he struggled desperately and still believed he was the only being in the universe that is realistic, and thus would die if they killed him. In the end, he was killed by "others" whom he deemed as weak and unrealistic, and the universe didn't die with him. **'Walter Watermelon:' He was killed by his own death trap set to kill escaped patients, right after he was beaten by those patients he humiliated and tortured. **'Blaze Banana', a misogynist, was defeated by Katrina and Cordelia, both female witches, and later killed by a woman (Phyllis) whom he scorned. **'Pedro Pineapple', who was showing lust towards Selina and trying to hide the secrets of Croatoan Virus experiment, was killed by Selina after Pedro himself turned into a Croatoan Monster. During the entire conspiracy, Pedro thought he was in control of everything but eventually being deposed by the real masterminds (Michael Langdon & Phyllis Peach). **'Orlando Orange:' He was killed by the Croatoan Zombies caused by his magical plague experiment and virus producing, not long after being abandoned by his staff members who were all fed up with his oppression. **'Lillian Lime:' She was back-stabbed by Dark Arzonia, whom she believed was a friend and willingly to give herself into her possession. **'Lord Helio:' Helio was completely hoist by his own petard. His plans come crashing down because he humiliated the wrong person (Pandora) in his second attempt to save Hestia, and was utterly defeated by people who were connected to his overall plans (Selina, Ichabod, Calvin and Phyllis), when Zoe/Hestia (the one he attempted to save in an extreme way) helped Ichabod after being disgusted by Helio's tendency. Helio was killed by the same weapon he used to pin Phyllis, who was revealed to be the one who murdered the original Hestia and many more people, to a tree with... by the very same woman no less. **'Phyllis Peach:' She attempted to gain the Stone of Wisdom and the Dawn's Early Light for herself and tried to become a human after making the world into living hell with those two artifacts, but she was destroyed by the combined forces of both of them. She eventually transformed back into a powerless human before her death. **'Leonard Lemon:' He had his plan foiled by his own fanatic followers, who snapped out of his villainous brainwashing, and they beat him up in an rampage, allowing Calvin, Selina and Ichabod to finish him off with the poison he used in order to depose his followers. The ironic thing is, Leonard tried to be a dictator who rules above them all, but eventually overthrown by the power of masses he once attempted to fool. ''Real-Life Inspirations Kang Sheng Kang Sheng (Chinese: 康生; pinyin: Kāng Shēng; c. 1898 – December 16, 1975) was a Communist Party of China (CPC) official best known for having overseen the work of the CPC's internal security and intelligence apparatus during the early 1940s and again at the height of the Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s and early 1970s. A member of the CPC from the early 1920s, he spent time in Moscow during the early 1930s, where he learned the methods of the NKVD and became a supporter of Wang Ming for leadership of the CPC. After returning to China in the late 1930s, Kang Sheng switched his allegiance to Mao Zedong and became a close associate of Mao during the Anti-Japanese War, the Chinese Civil War and after. He remained at or near the pinnacle of power in the People's Republic of China from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1975. After the death of Mao and the subsequent arrest of the Gang of Four, Kang Sheng was accused of sharing responsibility with the Gang for the excesses of the Cultural Revolution and in 1980 he was expelled posthumously from the CPC. Zhang Guotao Zhang Guotao (November 26, 1897 – December 3, 1979) was a founding member and important leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and bitter rival to Mao Zedong. During the 1920s he studied in the Soviet Union and became a key contact with the Comintern and organized the CCP labor movement in the United Front with the Guomindang. In 1931, after the Party had been driven from the cities, he established the E-Yu-Wan Soviet. When his armies were driven from the region, he joined the Long March but lost a contentious struggle for party leadership to Mao Zedong. Zhang's armies then took a different route from Mao's and were badly beaten by local forces in Gansu. When his depleted forces finally arrived to join Mao in Yan'an, Zhang continued his losing challenge to Mao, and left the party in 1938. Zhang eventually retired to Toronto, Canada, and became a Christian shortly before his death in 1979. His memoirs provide valuable and vivid information on his life and party history. Napoleon III Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte (born Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 1808 – 9 January 1873) was the nephew and heir of Napoleon I. He was the first Head of State of France to hold the title of President, the first elected by a direct popular vote, and the youngest until the election of Emmanuel Macron in 2017. Barred by the Constitution and Parliament from running for a second term, he organized a coup d'état in 1851 and then took the throne as Napoleon III on 2 December 1852, the forty-eighth anniversary of his uncle's coronation. He remains the longest-serving French head of state since the French Revolution. His downfall was brought about by the Franco-Prussian war in which France was quickly and decisively defeated by the North German Confederation, led by Prussia. During the first years of the Empire, Napoleon's government imposed censorship and harsh repressive measures against his opponents. Some six thousand were imprisoned or sent to penal colonies until 1859. Thousands more went into voluntary exile abroad, including Victor Hugo. From 1862 onwards, he relaxed government censorship, and his regime came to be known as the "Liberal Empire". Many of his opponents returned to France and became members of the National Assembly. Napoleon III commissioned the grand reconstruction of Paris, carried out by his prefect of the Seine, Baron Haussmann. He launched similar public works projects in Marseille, Lyon, and other French cities. Napoleon III modernized the French banking system, greatly expanded and consolidated the French railway system, and made the French merchant marine the second largest in the world. He promoted the building of the Suez Canal and established modern agriculture, which ended famines in France and made France an agricultural exporter. Napoleon III negotiated the 1860 Cobden–Chevalier free trade agreement with Britain and similar agreements with France's other European trading partners. Social reforms included giving French workers the right to strike and the right to organize. Women's education greatly expanded, as did the list of required subjects in public schools. In foreign policy, Napoleon III aimed to reassert French influence in Europe and around the world. He was a supporter of popular sovereignty and of nationalism. In Europe, he allied with Britain and defeated Russia in the Crimean War (1853–56). His regime assisted Italian unification and, in doing so, annexed Savoy and the County of Nice to France; at the same time, his forces defended the Papal States against annexation by Italy. Napoleon doubled the area of the French overseas empire in Asia, the Pacific, and Africa. On the other hand, his army's intervention in Mexico which aimed to create a Second Mexican Empire under French protection ended in failure. From 1866, Napoleon had to face the mounting power of Prussia, as Chancellor Otto von Bismarck sought German unification under Prussian leadership. In July 1870, Napoleon entered the Franco-Prussian War without allies and with inferior military forces. The French army was rapidly defeated and Napoleon III was captured at the Battle of Sedan. The Third Republic was proclaimed in Paris, and Napoleon went into exile in England, where he died in 1873. Herman Fegelein Hans Otto Georg Hermann Fegelein (30 October 1906 – 28 April 1945) was a high-ranking commander in the Waffen-SS of Nazi Germany. He was a member of Adolf Hitler's entourage and brother-in-law to Eva Braun through his marriage to her sister Gretl. Fegelein joined a cavalry regiment of the Reichswehr in 1925 and transferred to the SS on 10 April 1933. He became a leader of an SS equestrian group, and was in charge of preparation for the equestrian events of the Berlin Olympic Games in 1936. He tried out for the Olympic equestrian team himself but was eliminated in the qualifying rounds. In September 1939, after the Invasion of Poland, Fegelein commanded the SS Totenkopf Reiterstandarte (Death's-Head Horse Regiment). They were garrisoned in Warsaw until December. In May and June 1940, he participated in the Battle of Belgium and France as a member of the SS-Verfügungstruppe (later renamed the Waffen-SS). For his service in these campaigns he was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class on 15 December 1940. Units under his command on the Eastern Front in 1941 were responsible for the deaths of over 17,000 civilians during the Pripyat swamps punitive operation in the Byelorussian SSR. As commander of the 8th SS Cavalry Division Florian Geyer in 1943, he was involved in operations against partisans as well as defensive operations against the Red Army, for which he was awarded the Close Combat Clasp in bronze. After being seriously wounded in September 1943, Fegelein was reassigned by Heinrich Himmler to Hitler's headquarters staff as his liaison officer and representative of the SS. Fegelein was present at the failed attempt on Hitler's life on 20 July 1944. He was on duty at Hitler's Führerbunker in Berlin in the closing months of the war, and was shot for desertion on 28 April 1945, two days before Hitler's suicide. Fegelein was an opportunist who ingratiated himself with Himmler, who granted him the best assignments and rapid promotions. Historians William L. Shirer and Ian Kershaw characterise him as cynical and disreputable. Albert Speer called him "one of the most disgusting people in Hitler's circle". Eustace IV, Count of Boulogne Eustace IV (c. 1127–1135 – 17 August 1153), Count of Boulogne, was the eldest son of King Stephen of England and Countess Matilda I of Boulogne. When his father seized the English throne on Henry I's death in 1135, he became heir apparent to the English throne. He was first mentioned in one of his parents' charters dated no later than August 1131.2 In 1137, he did homage for Normandy to Louis VII of France, whose sister, Constance, he subsequently married in 1140 (as a widow she remarried to Count Raymond V of Toulouse). Eustace was knighted in 1147, at which date he was probably from sixteen to eighteen years of age. In 1151 he joined Louis in an abortive raid upon Normandy, which had accepted the title of the Empress Matilda, and was now defended by her husband, Geoffrey of Anjou. At a council held in London on 6 April 1152, Stephen induced a small number of barons to pay homage to Eustace as their future king; but the Archbishop of Canterbury, Theobald of Bec, and the other bishops declined to perform the coronation ceremony on the grounds that the Roman curia had declared against the claim of Eustace. Eustace died suddenly the next year, in early August 1153, when he choked to death at a feast, helping to bring an end to the English civil war. Historians have debated whether Eustace actually choked or was poisoned. The death of Eustace was hailed with general satisfaction as opening the possibility of a peaceful settlement between Stephen and his rival, the young Henry of Anjou. According to William of Newburgh, King Stephen was "grieved beyond measure by the death of the son whom he hoped would succeed him; he pursued warlike preparations less vigorously, and listened more patiently than usual to the voices of those urging peace." Empress Dowgar Cixi Empress Dowager Cixi1 (Chinese: 慈禧太后; pinyin: Cíxǐ Tàihòu; Manchu: Tsysi taiheo; 29 November 1835 – 15 November 1908), of the Manchu Yehenara clan, was a Chinese empress dowager and regent who effectively controlled the Chinese government in the late Qing dynasty for 47 years from 1861 until her death in 1908. Selected as an imperial concubine of the Xianfeng Emperor in her adolescence, she gave birth to a son, Zaichun, in 1856. After the Xianfeng Emperor's death in 1861, the young boy became the Tongzhi Emperor, and she became the Empress Dowager. Cixi ousted a group of regents appointed by the late emperor and assumed regency, which she shared with Empress Dowager Ci'an. Cixi then consolidated control over the dynasty when she installed her nephew as the Guangxu Emperor at the death of the Tongzhi Emperor in 1875, contrary to the traditional rules of succession of the Qing dynasty that had ruled China since 1644. Although she refused to adopt Western models of government, she supported technological and military reforms and the Self-Strengthening Movement. Although she agreed with the principles of the Hundred Days' Reforms of 1898, Cixi rejected their sudden implementation, without bureaucratic support, as detrimental to dynastic power. She placed the Guangxu Emperor, who had tried to assassinate her, under virtual house arrest for supporting radical reformers. She may have feared that any perceived weakness in the Imperial Court would have been pounced upon by the Japanese. After the Boxer Uprising led to the invasion of Allied armies, Cixi initially supported the Boxer groups for supporting the dynasty and attacking the foreigners. The ensuing Allied defeat of the Chinese forces was a stunning humiliation. When Cixi returned to Beijing from Xi'an, where she had taken the emperor, she became friendly to foreigners in the capital and began to implement fiscal and institutional reforms that began to turn China into a constitutional monarchy. The death of both Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor in 1908 left the court in the hands of Manchu conservatives, a child on the throne, and a restless, rebellious public. Benedict Arnold Benedict Arnold (January 14, 1741 January 3, 1740 – June 14, 1801) was a general during the American Revolutionary War, who fought for the American Continental Army, and later famously defected to the British Army. While a general on the American side, he obtained command of the fortifications at West Point, New York (which after 1802 would become the site of the U.S. Military Academy), overlooking the cliffs at the Hudson River (upriver from British-occupied New York City), and planned to surrender them to British forces. This plan was exposed in September 1780. He was commissioned into the British Army as a brigadier general. Arnold was born in Connecticut and was a merchant operating ships on the Atlantic Ocean when the war broke out in 1775. He joined the growing army outside Boston and distinguished himself through acts of intelligence and bravery. His actions included the Capture of Fort Ticonderoga in 1775, defensive and delaying tactics at the Battle of Valcour Island on Lake Champlain in 1776 (allowing American forces time to prepare New York's defenses), the Battle of Ridgefield, Connecticut (after which he was promoted to major general), operations in relief of the Siege of Fort Stanwix, and key actions during the pivotal Battles of Saratoga in 1777, in which he suffered leg injuries that halted his combat career for several years. Despite Arnold's successes, he was passed over for promotion by the Continental Congress, while other officers claimed credit for some of his accomplishments. Adversaries in military and political circles brought charges of corruption or other malfeasance, but most often he was acquitted in formal inquiries. Congress investigated his accounts and concluded that he was indebted to Congress (he also had spent much of his own money on the war effort).vague Arnold was frustrated and bitter at this, as well as with the alliance with France and the failure of Congress to accept Britain's 1778 proposal to grant full self-governance in the colonies. He decided to change sides, and opened secret negotiations with the British. In July 1780, he was awarded command of West Point. His scheme was to surrender the fort to the British, but it was exposed when American forces captured British Major John André carrying papers which revealed the plot. Upon learning of André's capture, Arnold fled down the Hudson River to the British sloop-of-war Vulture, narrowly avoiding capture by the forces of George Washington, who had been alerted to the plot. Arnold received a commission as a brigadier general in the British Army, an annual pension of £360, and a lump sum of over £6,000. He led British forces on raids in Virginia and against New London and Groton, Connecticut before the war effectively ended with the American victory at Yorktown. In the winter of 1782, he moved to London with his second wife Margaret "Peggy" Shippen Arnold. He was well received by King George III and the Tories, but frowned upon by the Whigs. In 1787, he returned to the merchant business with his sons Richard and Henry in Saint John, New Brunswick. He returned to London to settle permanently in 1791, where he died ten years later. The name "Benedict Arnold" quickly became a byword in the United States for treason or betrayal because he betrayed his countrymen by leading the British army in battle against the men whom he once commanded. His earlier legacy is recalled in the ambiguous nature of some of the memorials that have been placed in his honor. Hernán Cortés Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca (Spanish pronunciation: korˈtes ðe monˈroj i piˈθaro; 1485 – December 2, 1547) was a Spanish Conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of what is now mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century. Cortés was part of the generation of Spanish colonizers who began the first phase of the Spanish colonization of the Americas. Born in Medellín, Spain, to a family of lesser nobility, Cortés chose to pursue adventure and riches in the New World. He went to Hispaniola and later to Cuba, where he received an encomienda (the right to the labor of certain subjects). For a short time, he served as alcalde (magistrate) of the second Spanish town founded on the island. In 1519, he was elected captain of the third expedition to the mainland, an expedition which he partly funded. His enmity with the Governor of Cuba, Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, resulted in the recall of the expedition at the last moment, an order which Cortés ignored. Arriving on the continent, Cortés executed a successful strategy of allying with some indigenous people against others. He also used a native woman, Doña Marina, as an interpreter. She later bore his first son. When the Governor of Cuba sent emissaries to arrest Cortés, he fought them and won, using the extra troops as reinforcements. Cortés wrote letters directly to the king asking to be acknowledged for his successes instead of being punished for mutiny. After he overthrew the Aztec Empire, Cortés was awarded the title of Marqués del Valle de Oaxaca, while the more prestigious title of Viceroy was given to a high-ranking nobleman, Antonio de Mendoza. In 1541 Cortés returned to Spain, where he died six years later of natural causes but embittered. Because of the controversial undertakings of Cortés and the scarcity of reliable sources of information about him, it is difficult to describe his personality or motivations. Early lionizing of the conquistadors did not encourage deep examination of Cortés. Later reconsideration of the conquistadors in the context of modern anti-colonial sentiment has done little to enlarge understanding of Cortés. As a result of these historical trends, descriptions of Cortés tend to be simplistic, and either damning or idealizing. Zhao Gao Zhao Gao (died 207 BC) was an official of the Qin dynasty of China. Allegedly a eunuch, he served as a close aide to all three emperors of the Qin dynasty – Qin Shi Huang, Qin Er Shi and Ziying – and was regarded as having played an instrumental role in the downfall of the dynasty. Zhao Gao started his career under Qin Shi Huang as Prefect of the Office for Imperial Carriages (中車府令), an official in charge of managing the palace horse-drawn carriages. During this period of time, he also served as an attendant to Huhai, Qin Shi Huang's youngest son, and tutored him in the laws of the Qin Empire. In 210 BC, after Qin Shi Huang died in Shaqiu (沙丘; south of present-day Dapingtai Village, Guangzong County, Hebei), Zhao Gao and Li Si, the Chancellor, secretly changed the emperor's final edict, which named Fusu, the crown prince, the heir to the throne. In the falsified edict, Fusu was ordered to commit suicide while Huhai was named the new emperor. After Huhai was enthroned as Qin Er Shi, he promoted Zhao Gao to Prefect of the Gentlemen of the Palace (郎中令), an official post whose duties included managing the daily activities in the imperial palace. Zhao Gao, who was highly trusted by Qin Er Shi, instigated the emperor to exterminate his own siblings to consolidate power, and used the opportunity to eliminate his political opponents such as Meng Tian and Meng Yi. He also framed Li Si for treason and had Li Si and his entire family executed, after which he replaced Li Si as Chancellor and monopolised state power. In 207 BC, when rebellions broke out in the lands east of Hangu Pass, Zhao Gao became worried that Qin Er Shi would blame him, so he launched a coup in Wangyi Palace (望夷宮; in Xianyang, near present-day Xi'an, Shaanxi) and assassinated the emperor. Following Qin Er Shi's death, Zhao Gao installed Ziying, Fusu's son, on the throne. Ziying sent Han Tan (韓談), a eunuch, to assassinate Zhao Gao. Neville Chamberlain Arthur Neville Chamberlain FRS (/ˈtʃeɪmbərlɪn/; 18 March 1869 – 9 November 1940) was a British statesman of the Conservative Party who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. Chamberlain is best known for his foreign policy of appeasement, and in particular for his signing of the Munich Agreement in 1938, conceding the German-speaking Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia to Germany. However, when Adolf Hitler later invaded Poland, the UK declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939, and Chamberlain led Britain through the first eight months of World War II. After working in business and local government, and after a short spell as Director of National Service in 1916 and 1917, Chamberlain followed his father, Joseph Chamberlain, and older half-brother, Austen Chamberlain, in becoming a Member of Parliament in the 1918 general election at age 49. He declined a junior ministerial position, remaining a backbencher until 1922. He was rapidly promoted in 1923 to Minister of Health and then Chancellor of the Exchequer. After a short-lived Labour-led government, he returned as Minister of Health, introducing a range of reform measures from 1924 to 1929. He was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in the National Government in 1931. When Stanley Baldwin retired in May 1937, Chamberlain took his place as Prime Minister. His premiership was dominated by the question of policy towards an increasingly aggressive Germany, and his actions at Munich were widely popular among Britons at the time. When Hitler continued his aggression, Chamberlain pledged Britain to defend Poland's independence if the latter were attacked, an alliance that brought Britain into war when Germany attacked Poland in 1939. Chamberlain resigned the premiership on 10 May 1940 after the Allies were forced to retreat from Norway, as he believed that a government supported by all parties was essential, and the Labour and Liberal parties would not join a government headed by him. He was succeeded by Winston Churchill but remained very well-regarded in Parliament, especially among Conservatives. Before ill-health forced him to resign, he was an important member of Churchill's War Cabinet as Lord President of the Council, heading the Cabinet in the new premier's absence. Chamberlain died of cancer six months after leaving the premiership. Chamberlain's reputation remains controversial among historians, with the initial high regard for him being entirely eroded by books such as Guilty Men, published in July 1940, which blamed Chamberlain and his associates for the Munich accord and for allegedly failing to prepare the country for war. Most historians in the generation following Chamberlain's death held similar views, led by Churchill in The Gathering Storm. Some recent historians have taken a more favourable perspective of Chamberlain and his policies, citing government papers released under the Thirty Year Rule and arguing that going to war with Germany in 1938 would have been disastrous as the UK was not ready. Nevertheless, Chamberlain is still unfavourably ranked amongst British Prime Ministers. Yuan Shikai Yuan Shikai (Chinese: 袁世凱; pinyin: Yuán Shìkǎi; 16 September 1859 – 6 June 1916) was a Chinese emperor, general, statesman and warlord, famous for his influence during the late Qing dynasty, his role in the events leading up to the abdication of the last Qing Emperor, his autocratic rule as the first formal President of the Republic of China, and his short-lived attempt to restore monarchy in China, with himself as the Hongxian Emperor (Chinese: 洪憲皇帝). Historians in China have considered Yuan's rule mostly negatively. He introduced far-ranging modernizations in law and social areas, and trained and organized one of China's first modern armies. But the loyalty Yuan had fostered in the armed forces dissolved after his death, undermining the authority of the central government. Yuan financed his regime through large foreign loans, and is criticized for weakening Chinese morale and international prestige, and for allowing the Japanese to gain broad concessions over China. Jonathan Spence, however, notes in his influential survey that Yuan was "ambitious, both for his country and for himself", and that "even as he subverted the constitution, paradoxically he sought to build on late-Qing attempts at reforms and to develop institutions that would bring strong and stable government to China." To gain foreign confidence and end the hated system of extraterritoriality, Yuan strengthened the court system and invited foreign advisers to reform the penal system. After Yuan's death, there was an effort by Li Yuanhong to revive the Republic by recalling the legislators who had been ejected in 1913, but this effort was confused and ineffective in asserting central control. Li lacked any support from the military. There was a short-lived effort in 1917 to revive the Qing dynasty led by the loyalist general Zhang Xun, but his forces were defeated by rival warlords later that year. After the collapse of Zhang's movement, all pretense of strength from the central government collapsed, and China descended into a period of warlordism. Over the next several decades, the offices of both the president and Parliament became the tools of militarists, and the politicians in Peking became dependent on regional governors for their support and political survival. For this reason, Yuan is sometimes called "the Father of the Warlords". However, it is not accurate to attribute China's subsequent age of warlordism as a personal preference, since in his career as a military reformer he had attempted to forge a modern army based on the Japanese model. Throughout his lifetime, he demonstrated an understanding of staffing, military education, and regular transfers of officer personnel, combining these skills to create China's first modern military organisation. After his return to power in 1911, however, he seemed willing to sacrifice his legacy of military reform for imperial ambitions, and instead ruled by a combination of violence and bribery that destroyed the idealism of the early Republican movement. Tsai Ing-wen Tsai Ing-wen (Chinese: 蔡英文; pinyin: Cài Yīngwén; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Chhoà Eng-bûn; born 31 August 1956) is a Taiwanese politician and the President of the Republic of China, commonly known as Taiwan. Tsai is the second president from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), and the first woman elected to the office. She is also the first president to be of both Hakka and aboriginal descent (a quarter Paiwan from her grandmother), the first unmarried president, the first to have never held an elected executive post before presidency, and the first to be popularly elected without having previously served as the Mayor of Taipei (the capital city of Taiwan). She is the incumbent Chair of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), and was the party's presidential candidate in the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections. Tsai previously served as party chair from 2008 to 2012. The DPP's traditional position on the issue of cross-strait relations is that the Republic of China, widely known as Taiwan, is already an independent state governing the territories of Kinmen, Matsu, Penghu Islands, and the island of Taiwan, thus rendering a formal declaration of independence unnecessary. While Tsai has never departed fundamentally from the party line, her personal approach to the issue is nuanced and evolving. During the 2012 presidential election cycle, Tsai said that she disagreed with the 1992 Consensus as the basis for negotiations between Taiwan and mainland China, that such a consensus only served to buttress the "One China Principle", and that "no such consensus exists" because the majority of the Taiwanese public does not necessarily agree with this consensus. She believed that broad consultations should be held at all levels of Taiwanese society to decide the basis on which to advance negotiations with Beijing, dubbed the "Taiwan consensus". During the 2016 election cycle, Tsai was notably more moderate, making "maintaining the status quo" the centerpiece of party policy. She vowed to work within the Republic of China governing framework in addition to preserving the progress made in cross-strait relations by previous governments, while preserving "freedom and democracy" for the residents of Taiwan. Tsai believes in the importance of economic and trade links with mainland China, but publicly spoke out against the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), a preferential trade agreement that increased economic links between Taiwan and mainland China. She generally supports the diversification of Taiwan's economic partners. Fictional Inspirations Honest Honest, also known as Prime Minister Honest, the Prime Minister and the First Minister, is the primary antagonist of the manga/anime series Akame Ga Kill!. He is the Prime Minister of the Empire and himself seized control over the Empire while the emperor is a child. He manipulates Emperor Makoto for his own ends, bringing suffering through his orders by manipulating his innocence. Honest secretly rules the Empire in the shadows, bringing misery, hunger and poverty throughout the land. Presenting himself as a father-figure to the Emperor, Honest secretly poisoned the previous emperor and his wife to manipulate their child to his end while having political rivals and other threats killed off. Honest's selfish outlook is depraved to the point that he mourned Syura's death for a few seconds before callously shrugging his son's demise and considering to sire a more competent son. When the Revolutionary Army begin their attack on the city, having killed off a majority of the court when they planned to hand him over to the revolutionists, Honest convinces the Emperor to activate the Shikoutazer. During the final battle, despite his obese appearance, Honest reveals he had trained his body to live a long and healthy life of hedonish. Honest also reveals the crown on his head to be an Imperial Arm known as the Erase Stone (イレイストーン Ireistōn) which can break another user's Imperial Arm before rendered inactive for a week. Honest uses the Erase Stone to destroy Leone's Imperial Arm before mortally wounding her and attempts to escape through an underground passage. But Leone corners the prime minister and drags him to the top of the palace before throwing him off to the revolutionaries, subjected to horrific torture before finally being executed. Margaret White Margaret White (née Brigham) is the main antagonist of Stephen King's novel ''Carrie, its film adaptations, and the Broadway musical. She is the opprobrious, vituperative, domineering, dangerous, abusive, insane (she shows possible signs of untreated schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder), and fanatically religious mother of Carrie White, who has the power of telekinesis. She thinks almost everything, especially things to do with the female body and sex, is sinful. Margaret has a serious mental problem that made her devote her life to being a Christian who believes everything is sinful, even sexual intercourse, including within marriage. Her disorder is most likely a form of undiagnosed and untreated Schizophrenia that worsened as she aged. And as a result of her untreated condition, Margaret lived a life of isolation and solitude. She had no friends or contact with any relitives, but was stable enough to hide her deepest problems from the outside world and keep a full-time job working on the speed ironer and folder down at the local Blue Ribbon Laundry in downtown Chamberlain. (In the movies she works a part-time job as a seamstress in a clothing store.) Margaret ultimately became extremely co-dependent on her daughter Carrie who was trapped within the unhealthy and sick world Margaret had created for them both. Though Margaret had love for her daughter, her illness warped her perspective on reality and prevented her from loving Carrie in a responsible, positive way. Margaret occasionally had wild fits and broke into loud rants and tantrums if she ever caught Carrie doing something that she considered a "sin", which was basically anything that didn't have to with the Bible. She was portrayed by Piper Laurie (in 1976), Patricia Clarkson (in 2002), who also portrayed Ava Paige, and Julianne Moore (in 2013), who also portrayed President Alma Coin in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Parts 1 & 2, Mother Malkin in The Seventh Son and will go on to portray Poppy Adams in Kingsman: The Golden Circle. ''Patrick Hockstetter Patrick Hockstetter was a bully part of Henry Bowers' gang and a minor antagonist in the novel IT and its 2017 film adaptation. Patrick was a sociopath, and by the time he had turned twelve in 1958, he had become a full-fledged psychopath. He had the peculiar illusion that he was the only 'real' being and that everybody else (in the universe) was merely fake. Patrick also had no sense of hurting and no real sense of being hurt. His teachers found him to be an apathetic student - and a rather disturbing one too (the children agreed with these assumptions, as Patrick had the creepy hobby that involved him killing flies with his green Schooltime ruler and putting them in his pencil case - he also often exhibited the dead flies to new students on the playground). The narrator states that if Patrick had been born ten years later, a child psychologist would have certainly realized the frightening depths behind Patrick's "slack and pallid moon face." Midway through the hot July summer of 1958, Patrick, Henry, Victor and Belch Huggins were playing down in the local junkyard. The four boys were lighting their own farts with Henry's lighter, enjoying watching the jet of fire shooting out of their bottoms. Not long after, Victor and Belch say that they can't stay any longer, saying that they had jobs to get to. Henry bitterly let them go, relieved when Patrick said that he could stay. Shortly after the others leave, the two remaining boys are bored with the lighter and Patrick says "Let me show you something." saying that it "feels good." Henry obliged and Patrick proceeds to give him a hand job, and even boldly offering Henry oral sex, to which Henry responding by punching Patrick in the face. Worried that Patrick might tell his friends about the incident, Henry blackmails Patrick, threatening to tell the police about his "secret fridge", the very fridge that, for months, Patrick had shoved animals he'd captured into so he was able to watch/hear them suffer. After Henry stormed out of the junkyard, Patrick played by himself with the lighter for a while before getting cold feet and headed off to dispose of the dead animals that he kept in his fridge, scared that Henry's bluff was real. He opened the fridge door only to be attacked by It in the form of flying leeches (leeches were his worst fear from when he was eight after having to have had his father pull leeches of a screaming Patrick after taking a swim in a lake). The parasites had drained him of the majority of his blood and eventually dragged away the unconscious Patrick. The boy awoke only to experience It had already begun feeding on him. In the film, Patrick's death was implied; his worst fear is zombies instead of leeches and he is trapped and attacked by Pennywise before the screen cuts away after venturing into Derry sewers in pursuit of victim Ben Hanscom. Tsumugi Shirogane Tsumugi Shirogane (白銀 つむぎ Shirogane Tsumugi), the Ultimate Cosplayer, is a character partaking in the killing game of Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony. Initially disguised, she is eventually revealed to be the main antagonist of the title, serving as the ringleader of the killing game. Her talent is the Ultimate/Super High School Level Cosplayer (超高校級の「コスプレイヤー」chō kōkō kyū no “kosupureiyā” lit. Super High School Level Cosplayer). As a cosplayer, Tsumugi is able to mimic the appearance, behavior, voice and characteristics of the person she is cosplaying as. However, she is unable to cosplay as anyone who is existent in reality. In Chapter 1, Tsumugi murdered Rantaro after discovering that he and Kaede planned to expose her as the Ringleader and Mastermind of the Killing Game. In response, Tsumugi framed Kaede as the murderer of Rantaro. At the near end of the game (Chapter 6), Tsumugi was rightfully revealed as the organizer of the event and is executed alongside Monokuma by Keebo. In the beginning of the game, Tsumugi is portrayed as a gentle and kind girl who is polite and friendly. This is all made up to be a facade, as she is almost similar to Junko Enoshima. Cruel and cunning, she shows no remorse over organizing the Killing Game and Rantaro's death. Crazy over the Danganronpa show, she went to full lengths to brainwash those who participated int he event. It is evident that she had become insane in the Chapter 6 trial after nobody had voted for the blackened in the trial. Throughout the trial, she cosplayed the characters in Trigger Happy Havoc: Danganronpa and Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair as she explained the situartion. Channel Oberlin Chanel Oberlin is the protagonist villain of the FOX horror/comedy television series, Scream Queens. She is a mean, cruel, violent, diabolical, and cold-hearted girl who leads the Kappa Kappa Tau sorority with an iron fist. She is the commander of The Chanels, a group of mean girls who are her henchwomen and so named because she doesn't know their names and doesn't care to know what they are. Chanel is known for being the most popular, and meanest girl at Wallace University. She wears a lot of Chanel, because she is "the peacock of the group and has to really stand out", said the show’s costume designer Lou Eyrich. Chanel is very funny for being mean, ruthless, and fashionable. All her life, all she has wanted to do is be the president of KKT, have a great boyfriend, and rule the roost。 She was portrayed by Emma Roberts who also portrayed Jill Roberts in Scream 4 and Madison Montgomery in American Horror Story: Coven. Kamen Rider Socerer Drake (ドレイク Doreiku), a Phantom born from who would later become Prime Minister Orma (オーマ大臣 Ōma Daijin), is Kamen Rider Sorcerer (仮面ライダーソーサラー Kamen Raidā Sōsarā). He is a movie-exclusive character that first appeared in Kamen Rider Wizard in Magic Land, serving as the main antagonist of the story. He is referred to as the Golden Wizard (金の魔法使い Kin no Mahōtsukai), a distinguishment he shares with Kosuke Nitoh, aka Kamen Rider Beast. Shadow King (Legion) Amahl Farouk, also known as The Devil with the Yellow Eyes and the Shadow King, appears as the primary antagonist of Season 1 of the FX-original Marvel television series Legion. He is a demonic parasite, seeking to take control of David Haller's body and use his reality-bending abilities for sinister purposes. He is an adaptation of the X-Men villain known as the Shadow King. Amahl Farouk, known as "the Shadow King," was a powerful psychic mutant. Farouk came to be in the early 1800s in Morocco. From here stories of his actions and abilities spread. There are a few Egyptian poems about him. Before David was adopted, his biological father fought the Shadow King in a telepathic duel. The Shadow King lost, and he was separated from his body, limiting his potential due to his mind lacking the biological component to his powers. His body was then hidden. Despite this, his mind retained much of his original psychic capabilities and was able to find his opponent's son, David Haller in his adopted home when he was an infant. Farouk nested himself in the boy's mind and fed off of him in order to regain his strength. In David's childhood years, he would take on the appearance of a dog named "King," and later appear as a scary figure of David's childhood, "The World's Angriest Boy in the World." Farouk tormented David throughout his life, including rewriting his memories and feeding off of David's abilities to increase his own. At times David would catch a glimpses of Farouk's horrifying disguise "The Devil with the Yellow Eyes." Driven to insanity by Farouk's constant torment and the weight of his growing powers, David attempted suicide and was committed to Clockworks Psychiatric Hospital. The Thénardiers'' The Thénardiers, commonly known as Monsieur Thénardier (/təˈnɑːrdi.eɪ/; French pronunciation: tenaʁdje) and Madame Thénardier, are fictional characters, the secondary antagonists in Victor Hugo's 1862 novel Les Misérables and in many adaptations of the novel into other media. They are ordinary working-class people who blame society for their sufferings. Early in the novel, they own an inn and cheat their customers. After they lose the inn in bankruptcy, they change their name to "Jondrette" and live by begging and petty thievery. They serve, alongside Javert, as one of the two arch-nemeses of the story's protagonist, Jean Valjean. While Javert represents the justice system that would punish Valjean, the Thenardiers represent the lawless subculture of society that would blackmail him. The novel portrays them as brutal and abusive figures; some adaptations transform them into clownish characters, though sometimes still criminals, to provide comic relief from the generally more serious tone of the story. 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